I am the only person who isn't overwhelmed by this book. Sorry. ( )

First book in a trilogy, The Three Body Problem is set in Communist China, in the present day and in flashbacks to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s there. Ye Weijing witnesses her physicist father being killed during the height of the Cultural Revolution, and eventually ends up at a remote science station dedicated to the search for contact with alien intelligences.

In the present day, scientists are killing themselves at a startling rate, as they are puzzled that the laws of physics no longer seem to apply in their research. Wang Miao is developing a super-strong polymer, and experiences a bizarre experience in which a countdown starts appearing on film that he is using for his amateur photography. He is then brought into a government-led project that knows more than he does about what's going on. He infiltrates a shadowy group that also seems to know much more about what is happening, and starts to play an immersive video game "three body". We later learn that this game is telling the story of the development of civilization in a solar system that has three stars and a doomed planet that is passed constantly between them. That civilization is in a desperate battle to survive the "Chaotic Eras" and learn to predict when to start building, which requires a lengthy "Stable Era" when extreme heat and cold are absent.

There's a lot going on in this story! The science is very dense, character development less so. I had a tough time following the physics. But it has something interesting to say about how humans might react to news of alien civilization. It was worth sticking through the science for me, and I look forward to the rest of the series. ( )

Este es el primer libro que leo de este autor y el primero de un autor chino y debido a la gran publicidad que le dieron a la nueva serie de netflix quise darle una oportunidad.

Decidí leerlo a ciegas, sin ver de que se trataba ni ver el trailer y creo fue lo mejor porque es bastante difícil de explicar de que va sin tener que entrar en detalles de la misma. Es una obra que me gusto bastante, me entretuvo y me confirma mi gusto por la ciencia ficción dura y en este caso muy especulativa.

No es un libro sencillo, ni para cualquier persona, hay muchas explicaciones científicas relacionadas con la física teórica y aplicada que además se entrelaza con la política, y si no se disfruta de estos temas es una lectura posiblemente aburrida. Si sacáramos toda la base científica creo nos quedaría una trama que se podría explicar en unas pocas páginas.

En particular disfruto mucho de la ficción especulativa y creo que el planteamiento que se da en la novela es bastante original y plausible. Me sorprendió bastante en algunos momentos y no fue para nada una lectura aburrida. Me entretuvo esta narración a distintos tiempos y escalas y el no entender casi nada hasta ya bien entrada la novela por lo que me tuvo intrigado bastante.

Hay una crítica hacia el ser humano como "ente destructor" durante todo el relato y creo que es algo que se repite en la narrativa de Cixin Liu.

Algo que me complico es el no estar acostumbrado a leer literatura china, los personaje se me confundían, y por suerte el libro trae una lista de personajes al comienzo, supongo que pensado en los lectores occidentales, además el libro tiene varios notas al pie de página, que se agradecen, ya que de esta forma se entienden cosas relacionadas con la cultura oriental muy ajenas a nosotros.

Lo único que podría criticar es por un lado que los momentos de grandes revelaciones o de "acción" eran muy rápidos, hubiera disfrutado más con mejor desarrollo de esas partes lo que me lleva a los personajes, no se si por la diferencia cultural o por la traducción pero muchos de ellos me parecieron sumamente planos, por lo mismo se me confundían. ( )

A friend once complained about his undergraduate Science Fiction class that they only discussed character, theme, and other elements of literature without talking about the "ideas." The appeal of The Three-Body Problem has to be its ideas, which are mind-blowing, because the technique is bad. I don't think this is the fault of the translation or the audio performance. The way information is presented lacks life: coming off as essays about what's going on. We are (mostly) told about things rather than shown. A few sparks of real drama lured me far enough into the book to keep reading, but I'm left not caring enough to continue to the next books. ( )

Loved it mostly. Did not keep me up trying to find out what would happen next, but since I read before bed, that can be a good thing.

I loved that the characters are believable. The writing style is enjoyable and does not get in the way of the story. Kudos to the translator. I also love that science is an integral part of the story. I will be reading the sequels. ( )